Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The global pharmaceuticals industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation, shifting from synthetic, small molecule drugs to biologically-produced protein therapeutics. Protein therapeutics have numerous advantages over conventional drugs, most stemming from the fact that they can be precisely directed at their intended molecular targets, even in the exceedingly complex environment of the cell. This makes protein therapeutics both highly potent and generally less prone to side-effects. As a consequence, the global market for protein therapeutics has been growing rapidly over the past two decades, reaching $96B /yr for a single class of protein therapeutic - monoclonal antibodies - in 2017. Add to this the even larger market for vaccines (the majority of which are protein therapeutics) and the combined markets for other protein-based 'biopharmaceuticals', and the total market for protein therapeutics extends well into the 100's of billions annually. Being home to a number of international leaders in protein therapeutics development, like vaccine developer Sanofi Pasteur, and innovative biotech startups like Treventis and ImmunoBiochem, Canada is well positioned to achieve and maintain a global leadership position in this nascent industry. However, fully capitalizing on this opportunity will require the implementation of new technologies for protein therapeutics development that are unique to Canada, and thus provide a particular competitive advantage to pharmaceutical companies that conduct research and development here. The 'Technology-Enhanced Biopharmaceuticals Development and Manufacturing' (TEnBioDev) initiative is aimed at the implementation of new Canadian bioanalytical technologies to accelerate pre-clinical development and enable precision manufacturing of protein therapeutics. The initiative links platforms developed by Canadian instrument manufacturer SCIEX, through unique technologies, methods and expertise held primarily at York University to the drug development pipelines of Canada's research-active biopharmaceuticals companies Sanofi Pasteur, Treventis and Immunobiochem.